U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, D-South Boston, left, is shown here in Springfield on Jan. 31 as he campaigned for the U.S. Senate seat now vacant in Massachusetts. He talks with reporters during a stop at O'Brien's Corner. Mark M. Murray, The Republican

BOSTON - Stephen Lynch grew up in the public housing projects of South Boston and spent 18 years as an ironworker.

Lynch is not a typical Democratic congressman, and he wants voters to know it.

“Some people have said I won’t fit in in the U.S. Senate. I think they’re absolutely right,” Lynch told The Republican and MassLive.com. “But, I also think that’s a good thing. I’m not saying rich people can’t be good senators. I’m just saying that all senators don’t need to be real rich people.”

“I’m relying on ordinary families and ordinary people, small business owners, unions, workers,” Lynch said. “I know I’m the underdog, but that’s OK….I accept that role. I sort of enjoy it, and I think we’ll surprise some people.”

Lynch, who has five sisters, grew up in the Old Colony housing projects, a development then known for drugs and crime.

One of his childhood friends, John Hurley, who grew up with Lynch, says the neighborhood was predominantly Irish-Catholic and populated with working-class people. Lynch’s father was an ironworker; his mother worked in the post office.

After graduating from South Boston High School in 1973, Lynch followed his father’s path, working 18 years as an ironworker. When he couldn’t find work in Massachusetts, he traveled to Maine, Indiana, New Orleans, New Mexico and Wisconsin, working in steel mills, power plants and an oil refinery before returning to Massachusetts.

Lynch says he became active on safety issues after seeing the dangerous conditions in some of the places where he worked. “Ironworking is one of the most dangerous occupations in our country,” Lynch said. “Some of these areas …they didn’t have very high safety standards so you really have to fend for yourself.”

His activism in the work force led Lynch to become a union steward, then president of the local ironworkers' union.

Hurley, who is president of the ironworkers’ union in New England and worked with Lynch for years, says Lynch had a reputation as a “top notch ironworker and very bright guy” in a dangerous field. Lynch learned to work, according to Hurley, with a diverse group of members, dealing with issues such as collective bargaining and safety.

“He showed a capacity for leadership early on,” Hurley said. “He could have gone a long way internally within the union, but he saw a broader, brighter path he could pursue, and he succeeded every step of the way.”

Lynch went back to school later in life – attending Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston on nights and weekends. He graduated in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in construction management.

“I was still in the boots when I went to Wentworth,” Lynch recalled, referring to his ironworking career. “I remember freezing outside during the winter and then going in and basically almost nodding off because of the heat.”

He says his work with the union led him to apply to Boston College Law School, from which he graduated in 1991. His interest was in labor law.

Lynch did some pro bono legal work at the housing complex where he grew up, representing families in housing court on issues like getting rid of asbestos in pipes. In one controversial case, raised during his 2001 campaign and reported on by the Boston Globe, Lynch defended a group of white teenagers accused of violence and harassment against an interracial couple. Lynch believed the young people had been "overcharged."

Former state Sen. Jack Hart, a friend and neighbor of Lynch, says Lynch “understands the struggle.” “He’s been an ironworker, lived in public housing, stood on the unemployment line,” Hart said. “He’s stood up for working people.”

Lynch said families he represented in the housing development encouraged him to run for office. He was first elected to the Massachusetts House in 1994. In 1996, after long-time Senate president William M. "Billy" Bulger left office, Lynch won a difficult state Senate campaign against Bulger’s son William Bulger. Lynch was elected to Congress in 2001 in a special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of U.S. Rep. Joseph Moakley.

Supporters say Lynch’s background shapes his politics – his support for unions and his ability to relate to people.

Bob Philips, a Democrat and Lynch supporter who works at ABLE workforce training, said he likes that Lynch is “a union guy” and “a regular guy from South Boston.” “He’s not a run-of-the-mill crazy liberal who can’t talk to Republicans,” Philips said.

The Boston Globe reported in 2001 that Lynch was arrested for assault and battery in 1979 – though the charges were dropped – for punching Iranian students holding an anti-American protest. He also is reported to have struggled with alcohol abuse. Lynch recently said he has been sober since 1982. Lynch said drinking had been “a distraction.” “It just became an obstruction to do the things that I really wanted to do,” he said. “I had a hard-orking, hard-drinking lifestyle when I was younger, but that stopped around the time I met my wife, and I haven’t looked back.”

In March 2001, Lynch donated half of his liver to his brother-in-law, who had liver cancer. He started running during rehabilitation, and ran a marathon in 2006.

Today, Lynch lives in a two-family home in South Boston, which is assessed at $500,000, and rents out part of it. He owns a nearby single-family home, valued at $288,000, which he has rented out.

Excluding his real estate properties, both of which have mortgages, he has assets valued at between $12,000 and $169,000, mostly in retirement savings accounts, according to a 2011 financial disclosure.

His wife, Margaret Shaughnessy Lynch, is director of marketing at South Boston Community Health Center. They have a daughter, Victoria, 13, and raised their niece, Crystal, 18, after her father died 11 years ago.